After two and a half years of work, the City of Montreal’s French language committee finally released its final report which recommended to the Plante administration the creation of an office for the French language and the Francophonie.
“There is a firm desire to set an example, to implement concrete actions,” declared the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, at a press briefing.
On Wednesday, she accompanied the president of the French language committee Louise Harel, who presented the final report of the committee created in February 2022 to support the City in the implementation of its Action Plan for the promotion of the French language 2021- 2024.
In addition to the creation of a French language and francophonie office, the 13-page document recommends the development of a general funding agreement with Quebec rather than doing several piecemeal.
It also recommends that the City demonstrate “exemplarity in the use and promotion of the French language”.
A necessary shift
These recommendations aim to “provide all the necessary material and human resources” so that Montreal can fully develop as a “French-speaking metropolis of the Americas”.
Ni Mme Harel nor Mayor Plante were able to specify how much this would represent in investment on the part of the City.
“I can’t tell you what the order of magnitude is [des ressources nécessaires]what I tell you is that this shift is necessary,” replied Mme Harel when asked about this.
She stressed that it was necessary to “shake up this idea that everything is going wrong” when it comes to the French-speaking world. The mayor was also optimistic. “We want to continue to ensure that French continues to be this language of social cohesion, this language that unites us and of which we are proud,” she declared.
Elephant in the room
The French Quebec Movement salutes the work of the committee.
Its president, Maxime Laporte, would however have liked the report to name the elephant in the room, namely “the explicit decline of French in Montreal”.
“It’s as if we were proposing solutions to a problem that we don’t name,” he explained in an interview with The Journal.
He believes that there should be “measurable objectives” that would make it possible to concretely evaluate the use of French in Montreal. “We don’t know how many resources will be invested to carry all this out,” he said.
“The creation of a French language office is incredible. If we are able to do that in the City, it will be really beneficial,” reacted Marie-Anne Alepin, president of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal, for whom the report is “historic.”